Santa Pictures

Santa/T-Rex, Same Thing
So anyone who has kids knows how fun Santa pictures can be. When I say "fun" what I really mean is "the time when your kid looks at you like 'why the hell did you make me come sit on this strange mans lap while you guys do weird shit to try and make me smile.'" True story. Our experiences with Santa over the last three years have been amusing to say the least. Link never ceases to totally crack me up when good ol' Saint Nick is concerned. And now I give you his first Santa picture experience in 2009 for his very first Christmas.

We went with our friends Aaron and Nicky and their little girl and Link's BFF at the time Alex. We ended up at Nordstroms and our Santa was AWESOME. Link wasn't completely convinced but he graced us with a wannabe happy face to start:
Then he started to get curious. Who is this strange man who has deprived me of my mommy for a whole 60 seconds? He has gloves. He might not be trustworthy...
Wait a second... you are NOT my mommy or my daddy. Who are you?!
OMG. What the hell?! Who is this big man who has me? And commence the classic "kid crying on Santas lap picture." Perfect!

Onto experience #2. Again we went to Nordstroms with our same friends... though this time D was deployed so I had little help in making him smile as our friends now had two little girls to attend to. 2010 was a bit of a different experience. 2010 was the year Link decided Santa was the same thing as T-Rex and that he would tolerate being on his lap BUT determined if he didn't move or change his expression that Santa would not know he was there and would, therefore, not eat him whole. So the majority of the pictures were of Link with a blank expression on his face holding a ball that he refused to surrender.

Finally by some small miracle the photographer caught two shots of a tiny little smirk. He was one. It's the best we could do. Thanks Inky.

That brings me to this year 2011. With remnants of his decision last year that Santa was the equivalent of T-Rex he graced us with some great pics. He was so psyched right before we saw Santa saying "We gonna go see SaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanTA!" and jumping up and down like he was going to attack and bear hug him when we entered the place. Wrong. He had to be coaxed over to Santa and then he gave us this gem:

Then it was as if he had to be convinced that this man was indeed Santa so he did a little investigating of the beard. He determined it was real but that still didn't make him warm up to the suited man.

Then the big guy took things into his own hands. This was the picture D and I immediately agreed would be one of the pictures on our Christmas card. The look on Inky's face is such a classic Link look that it HAD to be on the card!

After Santa helping and me doing a "candy cane dance," D making silly noises that usually make Link laugh, and the two of us bribing him with candy, chocolate and toys (yes, we are those parents) we got this one:

Still even after the small smile we went back to something that was so Link I can barely stand how awesome it is. He leaned back as and gave Santa his evil look as if to say "bitch, I know you're not the real thing."And those have been our Santa picture experiences thus far. I now look forward to it because I may not get the sweet awesome smiling picture with Santa but he definitely let's his personality shine through and makes me laugh. So, SUCCESS!

One of those days

Aaaaaand, go.
Ever have one of those days where the night before your kid refused to fall asleep and woke up early the next morning? One of those days when they had to have chocolate on their waffles even though you already told them no? One of those days where your planned walk got rained out and your kid screamed for 5 minutes because they wanted the car that belonged to someone else? One of those days that when you left your friend's house you took away the Angry Birds you had used to distract them from the car tragedy and they cried all the way home because they wanted the phone back because "that's mone, that's MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE?" One of those days that, when you arrived home, you had to hear about how your kid wanted to watch a movie and when you told them no they told you the dog wanted to watch a movie and when you told them no again they screamed at you for an hour? One of those days that because of this kind of morning you now have a headache? One of those days that all your kid wants for lunch is junk and you give them apples that they feed to the dog? One of those days where they refuse to take a nap and instead destroy their room? One of those days that they use "I need to go potty" as an excuse to get up from their "nap" and then give you the "you're so dumb that you fell for that" smile/giggle? One of those days that your dog continually wants outside so you let it out and they immediately stand back at the door and track in muddy pawprints? One of those days that you decide you will turn around by actually figuring out something delicious for dinner but then you go out to the freezer in the garage and the tiny little person that you gave birth to and almost bled to death for LOCKS. YOU. IN. THE. GARAGE? One of those days when you find yourself praying that your husband doesn't have to stay late at work because you are now locked in the garage with no shoes, no keys, no phone and no more hope!?

No?

OK then just me I guess.
Mommy needs a drink.
At least tomorrow will be better!
A Time I Had

The Ultimate Cure

I Need A Smooch
You know those days when your husband's alarm goes off and you wake up and can't go back to sleep. Then you realize you can barely move because your body feels so weak and everything hurts like you did a weight lifting routine all day long two levels above your ability while you had the flu. Then your sweet little kid runs in the room to tell you they have to go potty and you need to "wake up" and you are wondering how the hell you are going to just get the blanket off your body, let alone get out of bed and take care of yourself and a two year old all day long. Anyone know what I'm talking about? No? Just me? OK. These are the joys of having fibromyalgia. I tend not to talk about it too much on here but today is one of those days where I am wondering how I am going to get through the day. I don't have a ton like this, luckily. And I am hoping it doesn't get worse in the future. This is what pushes me for now. I know these days are rare and that this disease can be so much worse.

I suppose the reason I chose to blog about it today was because I sat down with Link and he was upset because his foot hurt. He informed me that he needed a smooch to make it feel better. He was very upset in the pain in his foot so I smooched his foot like a good Mommy. He was magically better. He usually is after a minor injury that requires a smooch to remedy. I will be so sad the day the smooch cure has no more effect. I am sure that when the smooches don't work, 32 bandaids will. Once the bandaid cure wears off he most likely won't be such a little boy anymore. So how am I going to get through this day feeling like I do? I am going to smooch every owwy Link has (which, with a self-proclaimed ninja warrior, is sure to be at least one decent head/facial injury and another 4-5 bumps, scrapes, bruises or just plain "I ran into the wall agains") and enjoy the fact that even though it hurts to move, I still have a sweet little boy who will smooch my head if I tell him it hurts.

A Time I Had

Baby Werewolf!

North Pole Breakfast 2011

Look What the Elf Dragged In

So Samus, our very own Elf on the Shelf, was sent from the North Pole with breakfast this morning. We came down stairs to a beautiful, very festive and quite delicious North Pole breakfast.
Samus was perched over the setup. She brought a letter from Santa and a blank letter for Link to fill out that she could take back so Santa would know what he wanted for Christmas.

She was even sent for snacks of her own.
Some powdered and some sprinkle donuts to nom on with us.


She hung up some fun decorations too.

This was the entire North Pole breakfast spread that we encountered when we came downstairs.
Link's place setting had some special Finn McMissle socks from Samus.
She set out drink options for D and I. Apple Cider or Earl Grey tea.
We also had snowflake cups for our "reindeer snacks."
Candy Cane milk containers. When you put milk in them and let them sit the candy cane disintegrates into the milk and we enjoyed some delicious candy cane milk.

Some mini "Santa" cakes (whole wheat pancakes made by using Christmas cookie cutters). They were reindeer, snowman, stocking, snowflake, candy cane and gingerbread shaped.
To go with the cakes we were sent some Mrs. Claus Merry Meats (turkey bacon). Perfect since the rest of the breakfast was so sweet.
Some "reindeer snacks" (white chocolate chips).
Then there was some snowman melt sent with sprinkles (vanilla yogurt).
What North Pole breakfast would be complete without some snowballs!? (powdered donuts)
And since Santa caught wind that Link was "slightly" into Cars he sent some Inky size mugs with hot Christmas cocoa.
Here's Link's reaction to the breakfast table. "Whoa Mommy, look at that!? What is it!??!"
Checkin' out his new mugs.
He jumped right up in Daddy's chair and dug in starting with a snowflake Santa cake.
Nom.
D enjoyed it too. He was nice to keep the worm upstairs for a tiny bit while "Samus" finished setting things up.
We're weirdos. Weirdos that had a yummy breakfast.
And here's a picture to prove I was actually there! Mmmmm candy cane milk.

This is definitely a tradition that we hope to continue. So festive, so yummy, so fun!

A Time I Had